Since the invention in part relates to vacuum packaging, it is noted that reagents and other laboratory and research products have been vacuum packed. Also noted is the fact that microbiological culture media has been packed in bottles with screw caps and also in flat bottles. Another practice has been to package biological culture media in Petri culture dishes and insert the Petri culture dish in a plastic pouch but with no bactericidal or inert gas treatment of the pouch or use of vacuum sealing after such treatment.
While other methods for preserving and packaging microbiological culture media might be described, it is believed the above is sufficient to describe the general state of the art. Further, so far as applicants are aware all known methods for preserving plated media typically provide a shelf life ranging under refrigeration, between a relatively few weeks and at the most approximately five to six months. There has been a long-standing need for a method of preserving microbiological culture media which does not require refrigeration and which does allow the culture media to be stored at room temperature without refrigeration and without dehydration and/or deterioration of the medium.
The present invention is deemed to be applicable to all agar media and gels prepared in Petri dishes or similarly constructed containers such as plastic containers manufactured for the purpose of containing an agar or gel medium for the purpose of growing microorganisms or demonstrating a microbial reaction such as agar immuno-diffusion. The achieving of an improved process for preserving plated media and gels and improved packaging for such media and gels thus becomes the primary object of the invention. Other objects will appear as the description proceeds.